I don't answer or advise on "what is the market going to do." or "where is a good place to put my money these days ?" or "what are you buying these days?" types of questions. I reply that I am a very short term trader and I don't care if the market is going up or down. I only care only that it is moving.

Some friends/family have asked me to trade some money for them, and I will likely do that sometime this year. I will ask them to limit the amount they place with me to about what they would spend on a trip to Vegas.

I do "walk them through" the principals of assett allocation and teach them to use Bill Sharpe's website:

If they were to ask I would give, possibly, only this piece of advice: "If you were going to invest in a mutual fund, don't. Put that money into an index fund - choose the time you are going to leave the money in in advance and remove the money on schedule." I don't think anyone would ever listen to this advice, and if they did they would probably be beyond needing this advice.

This is exactly what I have been telling people.
Mutual funds = worst place to put money

Just buy some SPY every month.

But i'm not even convinced this is such a great idea.

You could still end up with ZERO return in 30 years.

peace

axeman

Quote from rlb21079:

If they were to ask I would give, possibly, only this piece of advice: "If you were going to invest in a mutual fund, don't. Put that money into an index fund - choose the time you are going to leave the money in in advance and remove the money on schedule." I don't think anyone would ever listen to this advice, and if they did they would probably be beyond needing this advice.

Depending on who they are, and if they're looking for a serious answer (not just making chit-chat when they ask "so, what should I do with my money?"), I'll most often direct to a personal friend who is a financial planner, and spend most of my time explaining why it's the best move.
This guy is great. He takes as long as he has to for the client to understand the lifestyle changes that need to be made in order to realize financial goals. (He doesn't just mindlessly recommmend mutual funds, either.)
Otherwise I encourage people to buy a home (if they don't own one), pay it off (if they do), or buy a bigger one ( ). It's almost a given that they'll be better off doing this than any moronic moves they would make by dabbling in the markets. Plus they'll get the satisfaction that owning a home (or a newer, nicer home) brings. Very difficult for even the biggest schmuk to stuff this one up.